@@@@@It is everybody’s duty to do as well for
@@@@@It is everybody’s duty to do as well for themselves as they can
Sir Thomas Bertram’s son is somebody; and now he is in their own
lineTheir father is a clergyman, and their brother is a clergyman,
and they are all clergymen togetherHe is their lawful property; he
fairly belongs to themYou don’t speak, Fanny; Miss Price, you don’t
speakBut honestly now, do not you rather expect it than otherwise?”
“No,” said Fanny stoutly, “I do not expect it at all
“Not at all!” cried Miss Crawford with alacrity
But I dare say you know exactly—I always imagine you are—perhaps
you do not think him likely to marry at all—or not at present
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“No, I do not,” said Fanny softly, hoping she did not err either in
the belief or the acknowledgment of it
Her companion looked at her keenly; and gathering greater spirit
from the blush soon produced from such a look, only said, “He is
best off as he is,” and turned the subject
253
Jane Austen
CHAPTER XXX
MISS CRAWFORD’S UNEASINESS was much lightened by this conversation,
and she walked home again in spirits which might have defied
almost another week of the same small party in the same bad weather,
had they been put to the proof; but as that very evening brought her
brother down from London again in quite, or more than quite, his
usual cheerfulness, she had nothing farther to try her ownHis still
refusing to tell her what he had gone for was but the promotion of
gaiety; a day before it might have irritated, but now it was a pleasant
joke—suspected only of concealing something planned as a pleasant
surprise to herselfAnd the next day did bring a surprise to her
Henry had said he should just go and ask the Bertrams how they
did, and be back in ten minutes, but he was gone above an hour;
and when his sister, who had been waiting for him to walk with her
in the garden, met him at last most impatiently in the sweep, and
cried out, “My dear Henry, where can you have been all this time?”
he had only to say that he had been sitting with Lady Bertram and
Fanny
“Sitting with them an hour and a half!” exclaimed Mary
But this was only the beginning of her surprise
“Yes, Mary,” said he, drawing her arm within his, and walking
along the sweep as if not knowing where he was: “I could not get
away sooner; Fanny looked so lovely! I am quite determined, Mary
My mind is entirely made upWill it astonish you? No: you must be
aware that I am quite determined to marry Fanny Price
The surprise was now complete; for, in spite of whatever his consciousness
might suggest, a suspicion of his having any such views
had never entered his sister’s imagination; and she looked so truly
the astonishment she felt, that he was obliged to repeat what he had
said, and more fully and more solemnlyThe conviction of his de254
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termination once admitted, it was not unwelcomeThere was even
pleasure with the surpriseMary was in a state of mind to rejoice in
a connexion with the Bertram family, and to be not displeased with
her brother’s marrying a little beneath him
“Yes, Mary,” was Henry’s concluding assurance
You know with what idle designs I began; but this is the end of
them